Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Karin Calloway

I’m a cookie baking Mom. With my heavy-duty stand mixer and my Viking, I can crank out batch after batch of wonderful cookies. As Viking on-line chef, I receive many consumer questions about the convection feature of Vikings and wall ovens. While I love the way the convection fan circulates air, giving me beautifully and evenly browned roasts, my favorite use of the convection feature is baking cookies.

With my Viking gas range, I can bake three sheets of cookies at one time, without turning the sheet pans or switching racks. I simply preheat the oven at 25 degrees below the regular baking temperature, and then bake up three dozen cookies in less than 10 minutes. Want to bake more than three dozen cookies at a time? Viking electric wall ovens can bake six sheets at a once in the Convection Cook mode.

If you’re a Viking owner, preheat the oven on the convection setting to 350 degrees and give my recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies a try. They’re always a hit with my children and friends.

1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

6 ounces semisweet chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F on convection setting. Cream shortening, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended. Add flour, baking soda and baking powder and blend until combined. Add chocolate morsels and beat until evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place on parchment-paper lined baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until edges are golden brown and centers are still a bit soft.